A New Zealand researcher who hid his involvement in illegal assisted suicides has been struck off the New Zealand Medical Science Council Register.

Professor Sean Davison will not be able to return to New Zealand as a medical science researcher after he failed to declare his conviction for illegally performing three cases of assisted suicide in South Africa.

Euthanasia advocate Professor Sean Davison had already hit headlines in 2011 after admitting to counsel and procure the attempted suicide of his cancer-stricken elderly mother in New Zealand. He was sentenced in the High Court to five month’s home detention. 

In 2013, after moving to South Africa, he went on to illegally assist three others in assisted suicide. He was sentenced to three years’ house arrest for his actions in 2019.

Davison wished to move back to New Zealand to practise pathology after completing house arrest and was granted a provisional registration. He disclosed his conviction linked to the death of his mother, but failed to disclose the convictions in South Africa.

The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal via video link to his home in South Africa struck Davison off the register stating his convictions and omissions reflected adversely on his fitness to practise, and they “undermine the integrity” of the profession. 

The ruling came just weeks before the binding referendum on the End of Life Choice Act in 2020.